Facts about the UND Department of Social Work
Social Work courses at UND were first offered in 1905 with the Social Work Program formally established in 1939. The undergraduate program in Social Work, offering a Bachelors of Science in Social Work (BSSW) degree, has been accredited since 1974, when undergraduate accreditation first began. The MSW program was established in 1989 and was fully accredited early in 1993. The Department has a strong distance learning program, which was established in 1989, for place-bound students. The MSW program is delivered flexibly on-campus. It is also delivered part-time through a distance learning format. Core MSW courses in the full time program are offered on Thursdays and Fridays. Graduate electives are offered on weekends in block time periods and over the Internet. The balance between instruction over the Internet and on-campus instruction varies and is dependent upon the content of the class. Other electives are cross-listed with upper division undergraduate electives. The Department also offers a "fast track" program (one year long) on-campus for students who want to secure their BSSW and have a degree in another field. Upon completion of their BSSW, "fast track" students often apply to the MSW concentration program, which can be completed in one year, allowing them to secure a BSSW and MSW in two years.
Additionally, the Department offers the MSW program over the Internet to students in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. This continues a long tradition of offering courses through the use of technology.
The first distance program offered by the Department of Social Work to undergraduate students was offered in 1989 at four rural locations, using interactive television. We have since offered the MSW program, at a distance, to four cohorts of students using interactive technology and summer on-campus offerings. In January 2006 we began offering the MSW foundation courses over the Internet to a fourth cohort of students. Current programming includes both the Foundation and Concentration curriculum online.
